Maybe India Will Get Its Super F-16, After All

3 weeks ago

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Hang on—maybe the Indian Air Force will buy the F-21, a sort of “super F-16” from U.S. plane-maker Lockheed LMT Martin.

India’s chief of the defense staff Bipin Rawat said in a May 15 interview that the air force would cancel its tender for 144 foreign-made jet fighters and instead order 83 additional Indian-made Tejas Light Combat Aircraft on top of the 40 LCAs the service already has paid for.

“The Indian Air Force is switching that to the LCA,” Rawat said.

Rawat’s announcement seemed to be the death-knell for the F-21, a greatly-upgraded F-16 variant that Lockheed is developing specifically for the Indian tender.